Who has ever played a game where you can arrange your troops?

"Conquest of America" ??launched by GSC, the game developer that once developed the "Cossacks" series, is a real-time strategy game somewhat similar to "Age of Empires". The game uses the same game engine as "Cossacks". In order to show the majestic momentum on the battlefield, GSC said that without affecting the smoothness of the game, the number of soldiers appearing on the map can reach up to 16,000! Think about how glorious it would be to lead thousands of troops into battle.

As a domestic agent publisher, Jiaotong University Mingtai stated in June this year that it would launch a simplified Chinese version of "Conquer America", but due to the huge amount of localization and technical problems, the product was delayed for as long as It took 5 months, but after overcoming various technical difficulties while ensuring the quality of the Chinese version, Jiaotong University Mingtai finally decided to launch the simplified Chinese version of "Conquer America" ??in China in early November.

Excerpted from: gamespot Chinese

With a strong sense of history, excellent animation and art, and some unique control factors, "Conquer America" ??is based on the famous war in history. A real-time strategy game created for the genre. Unlike other war games, there will be no symbols or icons representing armies in "Conquer America", instead they will be physical objects. What is presented before you is a battle faced by thousands of soldiers, and there are no shortage of basic buildings that will appear in a real-time strategy game. Most real-time strategy games try to avoid having thousands of soldiers appear on the screen at the same time. The purpose is, of course, to avoid facing the difficulties that arise when making a war of such a large scale. However, "Conquer America" ??developed by GSC Game World, a German game company whose representative works include "Cossacks: The Art of War", breaks the convention of RTS. The map is a one-time game. The number of soldiers present can reach up to 16,000. The fact that the game's framerate doesn't suffer much in this case (at least on high-end computer systems) is perhaps the most noticeable and interesting thing about Conquest of the Americas compared to traditional RTS games. Of course, there are many other improvements.

When we first saw "American Conquest", our feeling was that it was similar to "Shogun: Total War" and its predecessor "Medieval". : Total War)" is quite similar. These games have one thing in common, that is, players can control a large number of soldiers in the game. The difference is that in "Conquest of America", players can not only control the entire army, but also any individual in the army. Soldiers, whereas in Total War, players can only control entire armies, not individual soldiers. Since the game still follows the infrastructure and resource management system of traditional real-time strategy games, this is another difference between "Conquer America" ??and "Total War", because "Total War" only focuses on strategic warfare. , taking the infrastructure and resource management system out of the game. Therefore, when playing "Conquest of America", players will not encounter major strategic problems like those in "Shogun" and "Medieval", and its mode will be more familiar to fans of traditional real-time strategy games. ——Players need to build a base, collect resources, create an army, try to upgrade, and deal with basic diplomatic issues. The interface of the game is very intuitive. Traditional commands and interface layout, such as attacking, moving, creating troops, building houses, changing army formations, etc., are all placed in the same position as other traditional RTS game interfaces. Everything you may need All functions are available. In addition, there is a supplement to the game's interface. There is a magnifying perspective on the interface that can enlarge the map 4 times. Therefore, even a small corner on the map, including a certain army or a certain The location of each building can be displayed - players can deploy their troops from this perspective.

Combining the management of thousands of soldiers with the micromanagement of base facilities and resource management is one of the more interesting branches in the game. The conundrum that Conquest of the Americas solves is how to simplify the management of large-scale warfare and infrastructure to a degree that makes them easy to manage without reducing the depth of the game. "Conquest of America" ??does not force players to micro-control the resource supply chain and handle the collection of the six major resources in the game. As long as players build mining areas, they can obtain a steady stream of metal resources; assign workers to cut down those resources that will never Fallen trees; in addition, with a click of the mouse on the barn, farmers will go to the fields to harvest grain.

In order to make these simplified harvesting and collection modes beautiful, some artistic processing has been done in the game: sow seeds in a field, and then crops will grow one by one. When farmers When harvesting, the crops will disappear one by one, which means that the field has been harvested. However, if soldiers march through wheat fields, it will not affect the yield of the crops, or if they cut down some trees to open a road, it will be equivalent to opening a gap in the fortifications. This is the case in other games. The same is true in "Conquest of America". Players do not have to worry about the loss of resources, which reduces the workload of micro-control to a certain extent.

There is another simplification in "Conquest of America". The number of soldiers selected by the player each time is not limited, which allows the player to make more macro-strategic moves. This should also Popular with players. Literally speaking, the concept of a group is no longer a general combat unit composed of a dozen or twenty soldiers, but composed of hundreds or thousands of soldiers. These soldiers can be stationed in any building to strengthen defenses, and these players do not need to bother building any special defense facilities. Comparing battles in history, American soldiers often attack enemies from inside barns or fortresses. This approach in the game should be considered more reasonable - after all, the American army in the Revolutionary War mainly engaged in guerrilla warfare. If you don't protect your property by building fortifications, your buildings, farmers, and artillery can all fall into the enemy's pocket.

Although other games have used the same treatment method before, the method of creating soldiers in "Conquest of America" ??is still different from the traditional RTS mode-you transfer farmers to a certain fortress. (Note: In this game, a fortress is equivalent to a city wall) and train them into soldiers. Every 15 farmers can form a traditional formation, which even includes drummers and flag bearers, and is commanded by an officer. Three teams can be organized into three formations: square, linear, and horizontal (also called column). During actual combat, the soldiers will automatically change their formation according to the current situation. If it is a large group of soldiers, the soldiers will automatically form into small teams in groups of 15. If someone sacrifices, the two teams will Merge and form new detachments. At this time, players do not need to spend too much attention on commanding soldiers, but mainly consider how to formulate strategic plans and handle the construction of infrastructure. Remember, Conquest of the Americas focuses on large-scale campaigns, rather than the individual, micro-managed skirmishes that Warcraft III did.

Proud of George Washington.

Compared with traditional RTS games, one of the more interesting aspects of "Conquer America" ??is that as the game slowly unfolds, it allows players to train more soldiers and create a larger army. In seconds players can build a squad of a dozen or so people, something that would take minutes in other games. And the process of training soldiers is also very simple. Just hold down the shift key and click the button corresponding to the type of soldier you want. In the blink of an eye, you can train five soldiers that meet your requirements. As for upgrading, it has become much simpler. In "Conquest of America", players will not see a branching technology tree.

There are some simple upgrade facilities in each building. You don’t have to focus solely on upgrading the main building. Some games stipulate that the player’s main building must be upgraded to a certain level before special abilities can be cultivated. There are no such hard and fast rules for military units in "Conquest of America". In addition, there is an option in the game - "Quick Mode". After selecting, the speed of various events in the game will become faster, including the training of soldiers, building houses and attacking, etc.

Although this game uses 2D technology, the art and animation are very delicate and surprisingly good. Take the types of soldiers, for example. They are all very distinctive and very realistic. It seems that the designers really spent some time studying historical materials. The army at that time had some very unique arms, which were created in response to the special period at that time, such as flag bearers, militiamen, and drummers. In addition, there were also traditional arms, such as commanders, soldiers, infantry, and priests. , cavalry and artillery.

Although 2D technology has gradually become outdated, the designers of this game have made special efforts in details. All the soldiers are wearing gorgeous, bright military uniforms, and the sound effects such as gunshots, cannons, explosions, etc. are also produced very well, even though it uses 2D technology. The animations in the game are smooth and balanced, and you'll even see infantrymen switching from rifles to sabers as they engage in close combat with the enemy. The maps in the game are colorful and varied, especially some of the beautiful buildings built when the United States was in its colonial phase, which are quite eye-catching. It can be seen that the designers who created the map must have worked hard to create a lifelike queue of soldiers. Another interesting visual effect is the message box that appears on the screen above the soldier as the battle progresses. For example, when the American army and the French army met, the number of soldiers of the former was far greater than that of the latter, and the two sides fell into a melee. At this time, messages such as "I want to go home" and "Protect yourself" will appear above the soldiers. ”, “The enemy is much stronger than us” and other information boxes add a bit of humanity to the game.

The game levels in "Conquest of America" ??play similarly to other strategy games, except that it has some additional historical background. From Columbus's discovery of the New World in the 15th century to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century, the game spans 300 years. The wars in the game are divided according to historical periods. For example, players can play as the Spaniards who competed with the indigenous people of the American continent when Columbus discovered the New World, or participated in the "Seven Years' War" that broke out between France and the United States, or played as the Americans in the Revolutionary War. The game provides a deep diplomatic model, including conducting trade with neutral countries, selling resources and soldiers, etc.

In general, there will be dozens of countries and ethnic groups in the game, including some European powers, such as Britain, France, and Spain; and some indigenous American peoples, such as the Azhi Tekes, Incas, Mayans, Algonquins, Hurons, Delawares, Iroquois, and American immigrants. Conquest of America includes four single-player campaigns with a total of 30 levels, as well as additional levels, unique historical battles, and a random map generator. Players need to complete a variety of target tasks, from collecting additional crops and gold, to finding ways to save their lives within the specified time, to defeating designated enemies, etc. There is a long historical introduction before the start of each level. As the game progresses, the combat experience of the players' soldiers will become more and more abundant, and they will also master some new skills (on the other hand, the enemy's soldiers are also constantly improving, as long as you are ahead of the game) They were not completely eliminated in the level). How to keep the morale of soldiers high is an important part of military strategy.

In addition, the game also prepares various multiplayer game modes, which can support up to 7 people playing at the same time, but so far we have not tried it ourselves.

What is certain is that Conquest of the Americas plans to include a traditional deathmatch mode, online historical battles, a "Fight for America" ??mode, and an automated Internet tournament mode governed by a global ranking system. In the "Fight for America" ??mode, players will fight for U.S. states based on actual models. In the automated Internet tournament mode, the server will automatically arrange matches, track scores, and divide characters into different levels, using a system very similar to the developer's previous game "Cossacks"